In fact, it is a team of three in the Cabinet Office tasked with going through around 800 to 1,000 public nominations a year. Amongst them is Secretary of Cabinet Rachel Hayward, who told The Front Page, the Herald’s daily podcast, that the nominations rely entirely on public nominations.
“If you are sitting around and looking at an honours list and thinking, ‘I don’t know why ‘X’ isn’t on it, nominate X,” Hayward said.
“It relies on public nominations. The forms are on the website for the Department of the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. What we ask is you fill out a nomination form, and have at least two letters of support.”
The most high-profile names on the honours lists are always those who become dames or knights, but they aren’t they only honours being awarded today.
So what do all the honours mean, what goes into determining who should be given these honours, and what happens if someone rejects an honour?
Listen to today’s episode of The Front Page to hear an in-depth explanation of the honours system and how it works in New Zealand - and why you should get involved.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available every weekday from 5am.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
